Speaker: Kat Stafford, Reuters Global Race & Justice Editor

• Previously: investigative reporter for the AP, Knight-Wallace fellow
• Lead reporter for the AP’s multimedia series “From Birth to Death,” which looks at racial health disparities impacting Black Americans over the lifespan

Presentation on “From Birth to Death”

• Motivations for the project

• Growing up in Detroit, she heard and participated in a lot of conversations about health inequities in her community
• Once she started working at the Free Press, she wanted to focus on reporting at the intersection of race and health → including work on racial disparities in HIV and lead poisoning rates in Detroit
• Started working at the AP and the COVID-19 pandemic hit → went back to her connections from Freep and growing up in Detroit to understand how the pandemic was impacting Black Detroit residents

• Felt that other stories at the time were very surface-level → provided the information that the pandemic was disproportionately impacting Black Americans, but rarely examined why this was the case
• The Knight-Wallace fellowship funded her taking on a project that would take a more expansive approach and draw connections to structural factors

• Traveled around the country with a photographer and videographer for over a year to hear people’s stories → each of the 5 articles focus on a unique health issue at different points in life, but highlight specific people and communities and the human impact of these health inequities

• Project overview and key takeaways from the reporting process

• “Why do so many Black women die in pregnancy? One reason: doctors don’t take them seriously” and “Black children are more likely to have asthma. A lot comes down to where they live”

• Combining firsthand stories with data points, and drawing connections to historical patterns

• Black kids face racism before they even start school. It’s driving a major mental health crisis

• Looking at the issue more expansively → not writing solely about the mental health effects of racism or the availability of mental health resources, but both, and how they are intertwined

• High blood pressure plagues many Black Americans. Combined with COVID, it’s catastrophic

• Looking at an individual’s story as a foundation, but then looking outward to the family and community impacts

• A lifetime of racism makes Alzheimer’s more common in Black Americans

• Profile of both a person with Alzheimer’s and her daughter, who is also her primary caregiver

• Looking at the condition, but also the unique challenges of being a Black caregiver

• Reporting on issues that require such personal stories and vulnerability

• Informed consent with Alzheimer’s patients → in their case, they worked with the primary caregiver, who is also featured in the story

• Transparency from the beginning, and setting boundaries early on → asking if it is okay to come into their home, what aspects of the care plan are they comfortable with including, etc.
• Wanted to make sure they were not showing only pain and struggle, but the fullness of a person’s life and journey → in this example, including information about what Constance was like before the illness onset

• Throughout the project, they were intentional about featuring Black experts, doctors, and historians → cultural competency

• Building trust and relationships with people, especially from marginalized communities

• As a writer, set expectations with your editor

• As soon as you step into a beat, or even if you’ve been on it for a while, lay out expectations with your editor to understand if this is the type of beat that allows for deep enterprise reporting → this can allow for more planning of “source cultivation”
• Explain to your editor that it is likely that you will go into situations where you will not immediately end up with a story, but rather that will allow you to build connections with people that can lead to a more fulfilling and in-depth story later on

• As an editor, provide resources to your writers

• Make specific time for reporters to go out and conduct outreach

• Asking the question “Who else should I talk to?” and not being afraid to use social media
• Thinking critically about who we tend to consider as experts on a given issue, and take a more community-oriented lens to thinking about who might make a good expert source
• Be transparent about how journalism works!

• Good things to touch on: your reporting process, your fact-checking process, what their exposure may be (your audience, reach, and forms of putting out content)
• Be clear about what comes next and make yourself accessible throughout the reporting process

• Considering history while reporting on contemporary issues

• Though the health issues of focus in the project were different, they could all be traced to historical events and systems
• When you are writing about disparities in the present day, consider if there is a historical pattern you can establish
• “As reporters, it is important for us to become students of history”

• Illustrate the problems, but also think about solutions → future stories and directions

• A large part of this is uplifting community efforts toward repairing these disparities